Dante was found in the middle of the road in Kentucky back in October, waiting for someone to help him. Most people drove right past, refusing to stop. He was eventually rescued and adopted by Kami Neihoff, who quickly realized how special he truly is.
Since Dante was found on the street and his past is a mystery, his new mom thought it would be fun to find out more about him by doing a DNA test.
“I’m a groomer now and really wanted to know more about his coat since it’s different from any I’ve seen, as well as his genetic health since I didn’t know his history,” Neihoff told The Dodo.
Neihoff was excited to find out Dante’s results. Instead, she got word that the first test had failed. The company, Embark, was just as confused as she was and offered her two retests. Both failed. They refunded her, but the whole experience only left the dog mom with more questions.
“I reached out to them for more info and they couldn’t provide me with any,” Neihoff said.
Neihoff decided she wasn’t giving up and ordered a test through a different company, Wisdom. After two failed attempts, they decided to try doing a blood test instead of a standard cheek swab. She took Dante to the vet to do the blood draw, sent out the results — and was once again met with a failed result.
“I contacted Wisdom after the blood test failed because I was unsure how that was possible,” Neihoff said. “I actually got an email from their lab manager. She had looked at his raw data and finally gave me an answer as to why we got so many failures.”
The answer was shocking and not at all what Neihoff expected: Dante is actually a chimera.
Early in Dante’s development, two embryos fused together, meaning Dante has two different sets of DNA. The equipment the DNA testing companies used wasn’t able to separate the two sets to figure out the pup’s breed, which is why the tests kept failing.
After six failed tests, Neihoff finally had answers, they just weren’t the ones she thought she’d get.
“He is at a slightly higher risk for autoimmune issues in the future due to his body potentially treating one set of DNA as foreign, but so far he’s been healthy,” Neihoff said.
Neihoff may never know Dante's breed, but through the process she has learned just how unique he actually is.
